Word on the Street: I Wish We’d Written That —
Five words every creative in out-of-home has uttered at least once.
Every creative in OOH has uttered those five words at least once. Usually under their breath. Usually while staring at someone else’s billboard.
Mine came courtesy of Polaroid.
“Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up.”
I laughed. Then I got jealous. Not because I disagreed. Because I wish we’d written that.
As I dug a little deeper, I realized it wasn’t just one great billboard. It was an entire campaign with a voice.
“You can’t bask in blue light.”
“Dance like nobody is recording.”
“What a glorious day to stare into various screens for hours on end.”
Three different billboards. Three different ideas. One unmistakable voice. That’s not luck. That’s creative discipline.
They weren’t trying to say everything. They were trying to say one thing in a memorable way.
The billboard wasn’t selling cameras. It was reminding us why cameras exist in the first place. Whether it sells another Polaroid camera isn’t really the point.
They made me remember them.
Funny how that’s still the hardest thing to accomplish in advertising.
That’s what great OOH has always done. It doesn’t just deliver impressions. It leaves impressions.
And last I checked, nobody has figured out how to measure a smile.
We spend a lot of time in OOH talking about impressions, CPMs, attribution, audience segmentation, programmatic buying, and AI. Those conversations matter. But somewhere along the way we’ve spent more time discussing how people buy billboards than why they’ll remember them.
We spend millions proving people saw our billboards. Let’s spend a little more time making sure they can’t forget them.
Our industry doesn’t have an inventory problem. It doesn’t have a technology problem. It doesn’t even have a measurement problem.
It lacks unforgettable ideas.
Here’s a little cow manure for you… No attribution report has ever rescued boring creative. No dashboard has ever made someone laugh at a stoplight. No algorithm has ever become the campaign everyone talked about Monday morning. People do that. Creative people.
The OOH business wasn’t built on the best spreadsheets. It was built because somebody figured out how to stop traffic with a great idea.
Polaroid reminded me of something our industry has always known but occasionally forgets. Technology changes. Buying methods change. Measurement improves.
But the currency of great OOH hasn’t changed one bit.
A memorable idea still beats a forgettable one.
So here’s my challenge to every OOH creative team, agency, and billboard company. The next time you present a campaign, don’t lead with impressions. Don’t start with CPM. Don’t tell me how efficiently it can be bought.
Answer one question first.
Will anyone remember it tomorrow?
Because twenty years from now, nobody will remember the DSP. Nobody will remember the attribution model. Nobody will remember the CPM.
They’ll remember what it said.
And if you’re really lucky, someone else in OOH will quietly mutter…
“I wish we’d written that.”
📌 We Want to See It
Seen a billboard that made you stop, smile, and quietly mutter, “I wish we’d written that”? Send it to OOH Today. We may feature it in a future ‘Word on the Street’ or ‘Best I Saw’ because great ideas deserve recognition—no matter whose imprint is on the billboard.
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